Cumberland County judges write - some say improper - letter supporting Justice Eakin

The entire elected bench of Cumberland County, Pa. - state Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin's home political turf - has rallied behind the embattled jurist, showing support that some critics say may have crossed an ethical line.

The six judges sent a letter Dec. 18 on official stationery to the Court of Judicial Discipline, asking it to clear Eakin, who is facing misconduct charges for his exchange of offensive emails.

The judges had their letter delivered to the judicial court on Dec. 18, three days before a hearing in which a tearful Eakin pleaded for leniency as a three-judge panel decided whether to suspend him before his trial. The court later did suspend Eakin.

At the hearing, Jack A. Panella, the presiding judge, chastised the six judges for sending the letter "ex parte" - the legal term for a one-sided communication. He said he had "referred this letter to the appropriate bodies for investigation."

"If anyone else attempts to influence this court or contact us about this case, that action will be immediately reported to the appropriate bodies," he added.

Eakin is facing another hearing Thursday, raising the possibility that the judicial court will revisit the matter of the judges' letter.

Eakin's lawyer, William Costopoulos, said Monday that the judges had sent the copy of their message to the court merely as a "courtesy letter."

Since he provided copies of the letter to lawyers from the Judicial Conduct Board - in effect, Eakin's prosecutors - at the Dec. 21 hearing, Costopoulos said, the judges' position was completely disclosed.

At the hearing, Eakin, 66, apologized for the emails but said they did not warrant his suspension or removal from the bench.

For their parts, lawyers from the Judicial Conduct Board told the panel that Eakin's emails contained "offensive, demeaning, insulting humor, topless women, gender stereotypes, sexist attitudes," and jokes mocking Latinos, Mexicans, and Muslims.

They became public because the justice exchanged them with a prosecutor in the state Attorney General's Office who was an old friend whom Costopoulos had hired 25 years ago when he was district attorney in Cumberland County.

Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane came across them, as well as hundreds of similar messages exchanged in email loops involving state officials, after taking office in 2013.

She had been making them public in an attack on what she has called an "old boys' network" that she said permeates the state's legal establishment.

A graduate of Dickinson Law School in Cumberland County, Eakin was county district attorney for a decade before becoming a Superior Court judge in 1995. He was elected to the Supreme Court in 2001.

He is a Republican, as are all six judges who signed the letter.

In their letter, the judges noted that ethics rules forbade them from praising Eakin's reputation. They found a way, though, to suggest they thought well of him.

Initially, they noted that "we are precluded by the Rules of Judicial Conduct from commenting on his character."

They then added: "While we are terribly disappointed by this opinion, we will abide by it."

Their key point, they wrote, was that as judges, they were "deeply disturbed" that a jurist might be disciplined over private emails.

"We doubt that there are many judges in the commonwealth whose private communications with friends would pass all tests of 'political correctness,' " they wrote.

The six judges included the new president judge, Edward E. Guido, and his predecessor, Kevin A. Hess, who retired Dec. 31. The other four are M.L. "Skip" Ebert, Albert Masland, Christylee L. Peck, and Thomas A. Placey.

In an interview Monday, Ronald Castille, the former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, said he was troubled that the judges had interjected themselves in the matter.

"That's highly inappropriate," he said.

Castille said judges should generally limit their involvement in such matters.

At Eakin's suspension hearing, Panella, a Democrat who is also a Superior Court judge, made a point of disclosing the arrival of the letter.

After chastising the Cumberland County judges, Panella later tempered his remarks somewhat. Because Eakin's legal team discussed the letter in open court, Panella said, "perhaps our first fear that it was an attempted ex parte communication was incorrect."

cmccoy@phillynews.com

215-854-4821@CraigRMcCoy

Staff writers Angela Couloumbis and Mark Fazlollah contributed to this article.